Chen Guangcheng reporting censored, obstructed

New York, May 3, 2012--Chinese security officials' ongoing obstruction
of foreign and domestic journalists covering dissident Chen Guangcheng is a worrying
sign for supporters trying to secure his safety, the Committee to Protect
Journalists said today. Authorities in Chen's native Shandong province have
kept the blind, self-taught lawyer isolated
from the media since September 2010.

The Foreign Correspondents' Club of China circulated an
email to members Thursday, warning them that "reporters have had their press
cards confiscated (hopefully just temporarily) and have been escorted from the
premises at Chaoyang Hospital." Chen was being treated at the hospital on
Wednesday for injuries he sustained during his dramatic flight from
extrajudicial house arrest to the U.S. embassy last week, according to
international news reports. The story is censored
in China.

In two separate incidents, men in plainclothes harassed and
threatened media crews from two outlets who were attempting to visit Chen's
home on Tuesday and Wednesday, the news outlets reported. Stephen Jiang, an
editor for CNN in Beijing, described his encounter on the CNN
website, saying that "a half-dozen burly men stood guard," which led to
scuffling and a cameraman's equipment being seized. The reporting trip was
intended to "find Chen's family--but couldn't get close," Jiang reported.

Wu Zimin, a journalist for the Hong Kong-based i-cable TV, documented
her own encounter with a group of men who surrounded her car and pounded on the
window. The men did not respond to Wu's request that they show ID or explain
why they would not let her pay a visit in the town. "We're just here visiting
too," one man told her.

Prominent activist Zeng Jinyan, who has been reporting her
conversations with Chen via her personal Twitter account, said on Thursday
that she had been confined to her home, apparently in reprisal for publicizing
his situation online. In a Twitter post on Thursday, she asked the media not to
contact her.

"Journalists reporting on Chen Guangcheng are being
subjected to harassment, obstruction, and intimidation," said Bob Dietz, CPJ's
Asia program coordinator. "Silencing Chen or supporters such as Zeng Jinyan
won't shut off the public's interest in the case, but it will reinforce the
perception that authorities are fixated on information control."

Although a few foreign journalists
have been able to speak to Chen Guangcheng in person, two journalists covering
the story today had their credentials confiscated in Beijing, according to
Claudia Trevisan, correspondent with the Brazilian newspaper O Estado de
S.Paulo and Foreign Correspondents Club board member. Trevisan told
CPJ the journalists had asked not to be identified.